WEBVTT
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23 miles into 26.2.
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My left knee was hurting so bad that I knew I was gonna have to do something I really didn't want to do.
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I was gonna have to stop.
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And I didn't know if I could still hit my goal if I stopped now.
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What's up everybody?
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My name is Evan Blakeney, and this is Just Keep Running.
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I'm a newer runner, I'm still figuring things out as I go, and I'm sharing with you whatever I pick up.
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I just finished my first full marathon, and today we're gonna go through everything that happened out there.
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You just heard about mile 23, and we're gonna get back to that a little bit later, but let's start from the beginning.
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So my goal for the marathon was to finish under four hours and 30 minutes.
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Back at the start of the year when I decided to run this thing, I read a book called How to Run Your First Marathon.
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And in it, they said that running a marathon under five hours is usually considered running a proper marathon.
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So that became my goal, under five hours.
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Then I ran a half marathon in March, in two hours and twenty one minutes.
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Now, that would obviously double to four hours and 42 minutes, but since a full marathon is actually a lot harder than just two half marathons put together, it seemed like 221 was just about where I needed to be in order to run that sub-five-hour marathon I wanted.
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But then I started to think to myself, well, maybe that goal is just a little bit too easy for me.
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Maybe I need to make things just a little bit harder on myself.
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So I set a more challenging goal and I stated it publicly before the marathon so that everybody knew I wasn't moving the goalpost or claiming that I hit my goal when I really didn't hit my goal.
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So, with that harder goal in mind, I decided that I needed a training plan that was gonna kind of attack whatever my weaknesses were.
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So I really wanted to think about my weak lengths and just go after those.
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Whatever the weak link was, I wanted to find it and make it stronger.
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At first, that meant a lot of zone two training.
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I really felt like I needed to build my aerobic base, and I did that for a good while, and I got my base up and my weekly mileage kept coming up till it got up to about 30 miles a week.
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But at that point, I started to feel like the weakest link in the chain wasn't my aerobic fitness anymore.
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It was my structural strength.
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My left knee was bothering me at that mileage, and my Achilles on my right ankle was starting to get pretty sore.
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So I shifted into uh strength training to go after that newer weakness.
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After about a month of that, I had a little detour on the way to the marathon.
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I wanted to run a 20-mile trail race with my friend called the Jigger Johnson.
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So I did some hilly mountain training so that I could get myself ready, and I ran just about 21 miles with 6,000 feet of elevation gained during that race.
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After that, the only thing left in my sights was this marathon goal.
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So I buckled down and I really focused on the build.
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I brought my long runs from 12 miles up to about 18, and I worked in more threshold running, which is basically comfortably hard intervals.
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Right at the edge of where you can still hold your pace, a few minutes on, and then a short recovery, and then repeat.
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That was the stuff that I had kind of neglected earlier in the year when I was focusing on that base and strength training.
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So after that marathon block was over, it was time for the taper.
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That's uh usually a couple weeks before the race where you cut back your mileage quite a bit and let your legs recover so that you can start the race fresh.
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The idea is to have a nice, calm couple weeks of recovery.
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Unfortunately, that's not really how life works.
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At least not for me, anyways.
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Uh, work was very hectic and life was even crazier.
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And the week leading up to the marathon, my sleep was just terrible.
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The best sleep I got all week was about a 70 sleep score.
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Now they say that you don't really need to worry about sleep the night before a marathon because it's actually two nights before that matters the most.
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Um, so nobody really sleeps well the night before.
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So as long as you get a decent night's sleep two nights out, your body can kind of run off of that.
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Unfortunately for me, I didn't get a very good night's sleep either night.
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So I guess I was just screwed going into my marathon.
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I also thought I was going to avoid maranoium, which is where you start getting paranoid about every little ache and pain during the taper.
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I figured that I could just tell myself everything was fine and that wouldn't happen to me.
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Um, but apparently I was wrong.
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I got paranoid through the whole taper.
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Every time I stepped weird and my ankle felt a little funny, or I felt a little knee pain going to bed or getting up in the morning, I was convinced that everything was falling apart and my marathon was going to be ruined.
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Now, the night before the race, all I wanted was to get the girls to bed on time, get everything packed, and then relax for a little bit before turning in.
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But that is not at all how it went.
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We got home uh quite a bit later than I expected to.
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My daughter was helping me clean the car and she was being a great little helper, even though she was tired and a little fussy.
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But uh she tripped and fell in the garage while she was carrying a glass coffee cup and she cut her hand open.
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So we had to stop everything that we were doing and deal with that.
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For a minute or so, I thought we were gonna have to go get her stitches because it was bleeding pretty bad.
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Uh, she bled all over my shirt.
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But once we washed it off and I realized it wasn't that serious, um, and we got it taken care of at home.
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By then the girls went to bed an hour later than planned, which meant I had to stay up way later, mixing tailwind for my hydro flasks and loading all of my gear into the car.
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And I knew I'd be tired and foggy in the morning, so I wanted it all done the night before.
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So in the morning I could just get in and drive without thinking about anything.
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You know, sometimes you hear horror stories about people showing up to their marathon and then they realize that they forgot their running shoes or something like that.
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And I really did not want to be that guy.
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So, anyways, after all the chaos and uh 49 sleep score the night before, it was finally race day morning.
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I got up at 4 15 uh because we wanted to leave early.
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The lady at the bib pickup told us that traffic was going to be a nightmare.
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And so we got the girls loaded up and we were on the road by 5 a.m., which was right on our goal.
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I was pretty tired, but more than that, I had to eat breakfast, even though I really didn't want to.
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I for some reason I never want to eat the night before a race or the morning of a race.
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Um, and my wife had run out of her homemade sourdough bread that I was used to, so I was stuck trying to choke down some store-bought stuff that was not nearly as good as my wife's, but I was able to get it down.
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A little tough, but I was able to get it down.
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Uh, turns out we were a little bit over ambitious on the timing and the traffic because traffic wasn't really a problem at all, actually.
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Parking was a snap, we got right in, and uh then the race gods gave me a very good omen.
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I got to be the very first person to use a portage on that morning.
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I walked in and it was pristine and clean, which has never once happened to me on race day morning.
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So I took it as a sign that things were gonna be okay, even though everything was hectic leading up to it.
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So then after that, it was kind of the usual milling around, waiting for the start.
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And then I found the 435 pacer and I figured I'd line up just in front of him.
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I don't really know the guy well, but I did recognize him.
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I've seen him around a few races.
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So I told him, hey, if you see me out there, I'm going for 430.
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So if you see me, just give me a push in the back and you know, keep me ahead of you.
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He gave me a little chuckle and he said he'd do that, and everything was gonna be fine.
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So then I just had to sit there and wait for the gun.
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Though honestly, at this point I wasn't really nervous anymore.
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It was more just excitement more than anything else.
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I was so excited to finally start my first marathon.
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And then after a year of waiting, the gun went off.
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So then after the gun went off, well, nobody really moved.
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The whole pack just kind of shuffled slowly toward the start line.
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By the time I actually crossed the start line, the clock already said about four minutes.
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But I started my watch right when I crossed the start line.
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So my watch and the race clock were about four minutes apart.
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Hold on to that because it actually does matter later on in the story.
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And speaking of my watch, one of the things that I learned in training is that none of the Garmin preset screens had everything that I wanted to see on a long run.
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So I built my own custom screen with all of the data that actually mattered to me.
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What I had on there was my total elapsed time, my average pace for the whole run, my average pace for the mile I was on, my current pace, and my heart rate.
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Having all of that data in one place made a huge difference in how well I was able to pace my long runs in training, and it turned out to be just as valuable on race day.
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So I would highly recommend that you get that dialed in before your first marathon.
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Now, everybody tells you not to get dragged out too fast at the start.
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You've got adrenaline, you're excited, it's easy to fly out there.
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And I figured that that wouldn't be me.
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I'd been really nailing my 1018 pace all through training.
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And then I looked down at my watch and I was running about 945.
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So it turns out it actually really is that easy to go out way faster than you want to.
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So for the next mile or two, I was just I was glued to my watch.
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I was, I was just staring at constantly, trying to be really careful to rein the pace back in.
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Now, to be fair, I was deliberately going a little bit faster than goal pace.
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Um, I wanted to be somewhere around 10.05 to 1010 because I knew that there were some pretty big hills late in the race that were going to eat a lot of time.
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And I didn't want to be climbing them at goal pace.
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So the plan was to bank a little bit of cushion early and then use it up on those hills.
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So I was settling into a nice rhythm right around 1008 a mile when about a mile and a half in, I saw my wife and my little girls near a playground that we had kind of planned to meet at.
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I ran over, high-fived them, told them I loved them, and they were cheering with their little cowboy bells, and it was like the cutest little thing I've ever seen.
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And that gave me a real boost.
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Um, really, really got me energized.
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And then I looked down and I was running 930 again.
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So apparently, my wife and my kids can really speed me up in the middle of a race.
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Um, so then the next five or six miles were just really about holding my pace and managing it the way that I'd planned.
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I was taking any downhill to build a little bit of cushion for those hills at the end, and I was doing a good job of it, holding my average right around 1008.
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But remember that pacer that I had joked around with at the start of the race, the one um who was running 435.
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Well, around mile five, I look back and he was right behind me.
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I was like, dang, dude, you're going too fast.
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You're killing me.
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And he goes, No, no, no, you're fine.
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Don't worry about it.
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So then I'm like, okay, whatever, keep running.
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And then I see him again at mile eight.
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And I say, Are you sure you're not running too fast?
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And he goes, No, I've got it, man.
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I'm actually behind schedule a little bit.
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So then I look at my watch and I'm like, I'm averaging about 1007.
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And I look at him like, what are you talking about?
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I honestly thought that maybe my watch was broken at this point.
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Then he looks at me and he goes, I'm running about a 1007.
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What are you running?
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I say, Yeah, I'm about 10.07.
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And he goes, Yeah, but I have to run to gun time, not chip time.
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And I was like, wait, what do you mean?
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I think I had a little weird look on my face.
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I'd never heard anybody say that on any podcasts or anything that I'd listened to about pacers.
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So he explains that he has to cross the finish line at 4:35 on the race clock, no matter what his chip time is.
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So since he crossed the starting line at about four minutes after the gun, just about the same as me, he's got four minutes to make up that to get to the time that he has to hit.
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So this whole first eight miles, I had been paranoid about staying five minutes ahead, or thinking I had to finish five minutes ahead of the 435 pacer.
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When really, because I crossed four minutes late, just like he had, I only had to stay about a minute ahead of him at the finish line.
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So that was a good lesson learned.
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Um, another thing I had done before the race on Friday, my wife and I drove the whole course in her car so that I could get a feel for the terrain and just know where I was going.
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And that's when I realized that it was a lot hillier than I thought.
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There was a steep quarter to half mile-ish climb right around mile 17, and then another stretch somewhere between 19 and 20, that wasn't really steep, but it was just kind of steadily climbing for basically the whole mile.
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And that drive is actually what gave me my pacing strategy, which was go a little bit faster early to bank time for those hills at the end.
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And here's exactly how I did it.
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On the downhills in the first half of the race, I would just let myself run basically as fast as I could.
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I'd just let the hill carry me down as long as my heart rate stayed under 150.
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And then on the uphills, I'd climb until either my heart rate hit 160 or I slowed to my 1018 goal pace, whichever one came first.
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That way I was never really redlining during a climb and spiking my heart rate.
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And it worked pretty well, actually.
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By the halfway point, I was averaging about 1006 a mile.
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So I had plenty of cushion for the hills coming up, but then something hit me around halfway that I really didn't expect.
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You know, everybody warns you about how brutal it gets at mile 22 or mile 23, but nobody warned me about boredom.
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Right around mile 13, 14, right in that, you know, half race distance area, I was ahead of pace.
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I was feeling good, nothing was really hurting me at this point.
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My heart rate was holding steady, and I just got plain bored.
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The crowd had thinned out quite a bit.
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Um, I'd been running over two hours, and I knew that I had more than two hours to go, and I really just started drifting mentally.
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And that's the part that actually messed me up pretty bad.
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I stopped paying attention to my watch and my mind would just kind of wander, I'd be daydreaming or thinking about random stuff, and then I'd check and I'd be going too slow.
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So I'd speed up.
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Can I get back up to pace, run a bit faster?
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And then I'd look down and I'd be going too fast.
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And that yo-yo went on for quite a few miles.
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It wasn't until right about mile 17 that I finally snapped out of it.
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And I'll tell you a little bit about what pulled me out of it.
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But I never thought boredom could be the thing that was going to wreck my race.
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And it turns out it's something that you have to work on just like everything else in your marathon plan and in your training.
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So, what pulled me out of that boredom at mile 17?
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First, my family was right at the bottom of the big hill that I was telling you about.
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I got to see them again.
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Um, my daughters were blowing bubbles at me as I ran by and then gave me another boost, kind of just like I had at the start of the race.
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And then there was the hill itself.
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It wasn't monotonous anymore.
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I was working fairly hard, and I really had to fight to get up that hill.
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I deliberately let my pace slow down quite a bit to about 12 minutes a mile so that I could keep my heart rate from going too crazy.
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And I spent some of that cushion that I'd banked earlier.
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I watched my average drift from about 1008 to about 1012 per mile.
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I also started losing that 435 pacer.
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He just kept his nice steady pace uh all the way up, and by the top of the hill, I'd guess I was probably about 200 yards behind him.
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Once I crested that hill, the fatigue was finally starting to set in.
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I was getting to about as far as I'd ever run on the road, which was 18 miles, and my feet were starting to hurt, my legs were getting tired, and I was getting very, very sick of taking gels every 30 minutes.
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Um, but here's the thing, that might all sound like a negative and a hard thing or a bad thing, but it actually helped me.
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It kind of broke me out of that boredom and it gave me something to push through and something to think about, something to focus on, besides the metronome of my feet just slapping the pavement over and over and over and over again.
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And that's really what kind of got my head back in the game.
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My pace was a different story.
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I'd still been doing the yo-yo um right up to about mile 18 and having a hard time getting back into a steady goal pace when uh right about then a couple ran past me, and they were running what looked like it should be an easy pace for me, but they were going faster than I was.
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So I decided I should latch onto them and see what they were running, which was right about 1015 a mile.
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I tucked in behind them for a couple miles, and they kind of pulled me back into my rhythm, and I finally got out of that yo-yo pace that I'd been stuck in for so long and was just able to kind of cruise at that 1015 to 1018 pace.
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Once I got back into my rhythm, I actually lost my pacers.
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Uh, the woman had to stop to tie her shoe and I never saw her again.
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And then the guy ducked into a porta potty at one of the aid stations, and I didn't see him for a while.
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But that was okay because I was kind of back into my rhythm and focused on the race again, wasn't bored, wasn't mentally drifting anymore.
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So that was good because this was the part of the race that I was definitely the most nervous about.
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I had done 18 miles on the road, I'd done the 21 mile trail run, which is yes, 21 miles, but it's totally different than running on the road.
00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:11.680
So this last 10K, basically every step of it was further than I'd ever run on the road before, um, and more than I'd ever run on trail or road at all.
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.519
And at mile 20, I started to notice my left knee.
00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:20.880
It hadn't really been a problem through this whole training block, not since the Jigger Johnson race.
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:26.000
And I was really hoping that it would just make it to the finish without any problems or pain.
00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.240
But mile 20 told me otherwise.
00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:35.279
By mile 22, it was noticeably worse, and both my calves were getting extremely tight.
00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.799
And I was starting to get kind of nervous at this point.
00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:45.119
So I tried walking for a minute, and it was the most awkward feeling I've ever had.
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:55.759
I don't know if you've ever been on a boat all day, but you get off and the ground just feels like it's moving, and your legs are made of cooked spaghetti.
00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.480
It was kind of like that, but with a whole bunch of paint on top of it.
00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:08.720
And uh, I remember some lady gave me a weird look because I said out loud, that's not better, that's not better, I'm gonna run again.
00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:16.960
So I ran and the knee was still hurting, but walking was just way worse, and I didn't want to do that again.
00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:25.039
Then near the end of mile 23, my knee was hurting so bad that I knew I had to do something I really didn't want to do.
00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:26.640
I was gonna have to stop.
00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:29.039
So I pulled over to the sidewalk.
00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:38.480
I stretched my calves, stretched my quads, my hamstrings, I kicked my legs a little bit to just try to loosen them up and and try to get going again.
00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.640
And getting going was way harder than I expected it was gonna be.
00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:47.279
Um, I was telling my legs to run and they just didn't want to listen.
00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:53.440
So it took a definite, like focused, real effort to get back to running.
00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:55.839
And it wasn't fast by any means.
00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:01.279
Then right around mile 24, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the whole race.
00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:04.960
During training, I'd been switching sides of the road every mile.
00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:12.960
Ever since the knee and the Achilles pain had showed up earlier in the year, when the road slopes down towards the edge.
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:21.279
So if you are always running on the same side, one foot is always landing just like a little bit higher than the other one.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:23.599
So switching sides evens that out.
00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:39.200
But this course had kept me on the right side of the road the entire race, and the road was sloping away to my right, which meant my left knee and foot, bad knee, had been landing high on every single step for 24 miles.
00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:43.759
And I noticed the sidewalk next to me was actually sloped a little bit the other way.
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:52.640
So I jumped on it, and not that everything suddenly felt great or anything, but it did feel a lot better, and my knee definitely noticed.
00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:59.519
So I got back close to my pace, um, right around 1020 and a little bit of 1030 a mile.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:09.599
After the stretching and walking, my average for the race had crept up to about 1017 per mile, which was basically right on goal paste.
00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:16.960
And for a little while on that sidewalk, I thought 430 might still be alive, might still be able to get it.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:25.839
But then the sidewalk ended, and right after it came a downhill, and that downhill killed my knee.
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:30.079
It was excruciatingly painful, and I had to walk.
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:31.920
There was just no way around it.
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:35.839
And I watched my average pace climb to 1020 a mile.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:39.359
So that means four hours, 30 minutes was gone.
00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:43.200
Then it climbed up to 1030.
00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:46.079
So 435 was gone.
00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:48.960
Then 1040 a mile.
00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:50.880
And I was just disgusted.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:54.720
That's when I knew the goal wasn't happening that day.
00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.880
And that's when the tears came.
00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:59.119
I hate crying.
00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:04.960
And honestly, I don't know if it was the pain from the knee or the goal slipping away.
00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:07.200
It was probably some of both.
00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:12.000
But um when I realized that, the first thing I thought to do was call my wife.
00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:17.920
And I told her that my stupid knee was acting up again and I wasn't going to make my time.
00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:19.920
Of course, she was super supportive.
00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:21.440
She said, don't worry about it.
00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:22.400
Just finish the race.
00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:23.599
It's your first marathon.
00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:25.519
It's okay if you don't hit your goal.
00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:29.599
And she was right, but I was still just totally gutted.
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:39.599
Um, watching a goal that I'd worked so hard for and um trained for just slip away right in front of me was was very upsetting.
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:48.160
And even though I'd watched my goal slip away and I was in a lot of pain, I will say the thought of quitting never once crossed my mind.
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:56.319
After that phone call, I just kept going and pushed as much as I could, which honestly wasn't much for those last couple of miles.
00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:58.400
It was walk, jog, walk, jog.
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:00.400
I'd walk until the pain eased off.
00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:02.960
And then I'd convince myself that I could run again.
00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:07.039
I'd jog for a little bit until it hurt too bad, and then I'd have to walk again.
00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.960
Um, then I hit the one mile to go mark.
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:20.640
And something about that mile to go gave me a little bit of a boost of energy and a little bit of hope, um, and a little bit of not really caring what my knee felt like anymore.
00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:27.839
So I walked a bit of that mile, and then for the last three quarters of a mile or so, I jogged it all.
00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.119
And it wasn't fast.
00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:34.559
I'm not sure because I walked so much, but it was probably like a 13 or 14 mile pace.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:42.720
And then I saw my wife and kids right at the finish line, got one last little boost from them, and then I put in my usual finish line kick.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:46.480
I always try to cross the finish line as fast as I possibly can.
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:55.440
And according to my Garmin, the fastest pace I hit in the entire race was crossing that finish line, which was right about 817 a mile.
00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:03.839
As soon as I crossed, I put my hands on my knees, bent over, and just couldn't believe that it was done.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:09.680
Uh my official time was four hours, 46 minutes, and 32 seconds.
00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:22.160
The uh the 435 pacer that I'd been kind of joking with the whole race was leaning on the railing of the little corral thing that was uh hurting everybody into a little baseball field.
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:27.680
I went over, gave him a fist bump, and thanked him for all the all the encouragement out there.
00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:34.559
He told me I did a great job, and we we gave each other a little like kind of one-arm side hug and congratulated each other.
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:40.640
And then I got my medal, my beautiful medal, and uh which is right here.
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:52.079
Ta-da! And even though I was still really gutted about the time, um, getting that medal still felt pretty good.
00:25:52.240 --> 00:26:02.240
Um on the way into the baseball field, I remembered one of the books that I read saying that you should take the emergency blanket they give you, even if you don't feel like you need it.
00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:07.039
And I didn't really think I needed it, but I turned around anyway and grabbed one.
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:19.440
And then they had some tables lined up with little cups of water on them, and I was just so sick of tailwind and gels that all I wanted was plain, clean, unflavored water.
00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:23.759
I chugged like three classes of water on my way down that little row of tables.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.240
Then I looked around for my wife and kids for a little bit, but they hadn't quite made it into the baseball field yet.
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:35.119
So I was just pretty tired and my legs were hurting so bad.
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:42.960
So I just kind of wrapped that little emergency blanket around me and I laid down in the grass and the infield and I closed my eyes.
00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.559
Um when my family finally found me, they came up to me.
00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:47.680
I didn't even open my eyes.
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:50.559
I just said, I love you guys, and kept lying there.
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:55.519
Then um, my amazing wife offered to stretch and massage my legs a little bit.
00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:03.680
She asked me where it was hurting, and she worked on my calves a little bit, and then she put her hand on my left knee and she was like, Oh, is this where it hurts?
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:06.400
I said, Yeah, right on the on the outside of my knee there.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:11.680
And she was like, Well, you're warm everywhere, but it's actually hot to the touch right here.
00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:15.519
So apparently there was actually some real inflammation going on.
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:16.880
It wasn't all in my head.
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.519
So that kind of made me feel a little bit better.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.680
So what happened that cost me my goal?
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:30.480
When I look back at the data, through 20 miles, I was actually comfortably ahead of my scheduled pace.
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:36.799
My average pace had me on track for about a four-hour, 27-minute finish at that point.
00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:46.880
I started losing some of that as soon as that knee pain showed up, but at mile 23, I was still well on pace to that 430 mark before I stopped.
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:55.279
So nearly all of those 16 minutes came in the last three miles, and they came from the knee, not my aerobic capacity.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:06.319
My aerobic engine and my fueling strategy both seemed like they were plenty strong enough to get the job done that day, but um, but structurally, the knee just wasn't gonna hold up.
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.119
Remember how I said I had spent the whole year attacking my weak link?
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:14.559
I knew my weak link had become my left knee.
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:20.880
And I did a lot of strength training and a lot of knee strengthening specifically to go after it.
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:24.640
But on race day, the weakest link was still my knee.
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:28.400
So was 430 actually in me that day?
00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:36.240
Um, my aerobic fitness and my fueling strategy say yes, it was, but a marathon includes your whole body.
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:39.119
And my knee is obviously part of my body.
00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:42.160
So apparently it just wasn't in me that day.
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:54.720
The question that I really can't answer, and honestly, it's been eating me up ever since the race, is whether banking time on the downhills early in the race cost me my knee late in the race.
00:28:54.880 --> 00:29:00.880
It protected me aerobically, and it meant that I didn't have to push too hard on the uphills, which was nice.
00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:13.839
But running that fast downhill with all that jarring impact over and over again might have beaten up my knee a lot more early on than I realized, and then I paid for it at the end of the race.
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:17.599
And I didn't even really run the plan that I intended.
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:23.279
My plan was to be around 1012 a mile at the halfway point, not 1006.
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:35.440
Um, that little rush at the beginning and the pacer confusion pushed me to run a lot faster than I wanted to because you know he was trying to catch up to the gun time and I didn't realize it.
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:42.079
And maybe an in-between strategy that I had actually planned would have been okay.
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:43.119
I don't really know.
00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:52.319
I also don't know if I'd had the aerobic capacity to push up those hills late in the race without any cushion, or if my knee would have failed anyway.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:56.960
So that's really just something that I have to live with not knowing for right now.
00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:05.519
Um, the other question that I have to sit with is did capping my long runs at 18 miles keep me from finding the weak link?
00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:08.079
I don't really think that's the case.
00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:13.680
Um, even if I'd pushed out to 20 miles, it wouldn't have shown me the failure that showed up at mile 23.
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:25.759
It might have hurt a little, um, but it wouldn't have told me anything definitive without going to like 24 or 25 miles, which nobody really does in training, and I never even considered doing that.
00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:36.079
So I don't really think it was the wrong choice, but I can't answer it definitively either way, because I only got to run this experiment one way.
00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:37.759
It's just kind of the nature of it.
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:43.440
Um, but even with all of those questions, I can still be proud that I just ran a marathon.
00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:47.680
Less than 1% of people ever do that, and I'm one of them.
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:56.720
And with my work schedule, with the kids, running a small business, I don't think I could have realistically put in much better training than I did.
00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:02.480
But being proud of running a marathon doesn't make the frustration go away.
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.000
I'm still so mad that I didn't hit my goal time.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:15.839
I feel like I did uh enough of the aerobic and fitness work to get there, and my stupid knee just wouldn't let it happen, which again is part of me.
00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:22.960
It's not like my knee is like a separate person that's trying to sabotage me, but it's just frustrating.
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:33.680
And even though the knee didn't get me to 26.2 miles the way I wanted it to, when I look back at the year, it's come a long way.
00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:39.440
Two weeks before the half marathon in March, I did a 10-mile long run.
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:41.759
That was like my peak run before the half marathon.
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:47.440
And my knee hurt so bad that I honestly at that point didn't think I'd ever run a marathon.
00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:50.480
I wasn't even sure if I was gonna make it through the half marathon.
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:57.759
But I did get through the half and built mileage all year, and then Jigger Johnson happened.
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:02.400
By far the longest thing I'd ever done at that point with tons of descending.
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:06.640
And my knee was in a lot of pain at the end of that one, too.
00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:10.640
I was worried again whether I was gonna be able to do the marathon or not.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:16.160
But I kept training, and after some rest and recovery, my knee actually got a lot better.
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:19.519
And then it carried me 23 miles at goal pace.
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.440
So when I look at that trajectory, it's actually pretty encouraging.
00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:27.440
The knee is probably the thing I've improved the most all year.
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:37.519
And if I can keep that trajectory going, then you know, hopefully by this time next year, I should be able to run this race without the knee being a major issue.
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:44.319
I should be able to push myself a little harder and keep working toward bigger and bigger goals, like I kind of have been doing all this year.
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:49.359
So yeah, it is frustrating but also encouraging.
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:55.599
But uh, anyways, I've talked a lot about what went right, what went wrong in my race.
00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:02.559
And hopefully you got some some good information out there that you can apply to your own training and hopefully your own first marathon.
00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:09.440
But there's one more thing that I'd like to touch on before we wrap up, and that is your spouse.
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:17.119
If you are married and training for a marathon, you're definitely putting in a lot of time, and that's time away from your family.
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:20.880
It's a huge drain on your spouse, not just you.
00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:27.200
So before you start a training program, I would highly encourage you to sit down and talk with them about it.
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:34.640
If you've got an awesome spouse like I do, they'll be really encouraging and do everything they can to help you hit your goals.
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:38.720
But being supportive doesn't necessarily make it easy on them.
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:47.279
It can be really hard when it feels like the only thing you care about is just training for this stupid marathon that they probably don't care about.
00:33:47.599 --> 00:34:00.400
So talk to them, make sure they know that you understand what they're giving up, and make sure that you're giving them props for supporting you and making sure you that they know you understand.
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.279
Um, I could have never done this without my wife helping me the whole way through.
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:08.559
Honestly, I couldn't really do life without her.
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:16.400
So I try to give her as much praise as I can, and even that is nowhere near what she deserves.
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:23.039
So, yeah, anyways, that's uh one last lesson for you, and that's really all I've got on this marathon.
00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:28.480
Um, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going from here, but I've got a couple of big ideas for next year.
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:34.159
So be sure to follow along and we'll see if I can hit the next goal that I set.
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:43.519
If you like this episode or if you learned anything from it, could you do me a huge favor and subscribe or follow on whatever platform you're listening or watching on?
00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:48.480
And if you've got a minute, leave in a review or a comment really helps a ton too.
00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:51.360
So I'm gonna just keep running.
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.400
And until next time, you just keep running too.
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.640
23 miles into 26.2.
00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:08.560
My left knee was hurting so bad that I knew I was gonna have to do something I really didn't want to do.
00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.320
I was gonna have to stop.
00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:14.080
And I didn't know if I could still hit my goal if I stopped now.
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:15.599
What's up everybody?
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.879
My name is Evan Blakeney, and this is Just Keep Running.
00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:24.800
I'm a newer runner, I'm still figuring things out as I go, and I'm sharing with you whatever I pick up.
00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:30.399
I just finished my first full marathon, and today we're gonna go through everything that happened out there.
00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:36.799
You just heard about mile 23, and we're gonna get back to that a little bit later, but let's start from the beginning.
00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:41.840
So my goal for the marathon was to finish under four hours and 30 minutes.
00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:48.079
Back at the start of the year when I decided to run this thing, I read a book called How to Run Your First Marathon.
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:56.240
And in it, they said that running a marathon under five hours is usually considered running a proper marathon.
00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.119
So that became my goal, under five hours.
00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:03.679
Then I ran a half marathon in March, in two hours and twenty one minutes.
00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:21.200
Now, that would obviously double to four hours and 42 minutes, but since a full marathon is actually a lot harder than just two half marathons put together, it seemed like 221 was just about where I needed to be in order to run that sub-five-hour marathon I wanted.
00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:26.159
But then I started to think to myself, well, maybe that goal is just a little bit too easy for me.
00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:29.599
Maybe I need to make things just a little bit harder on myself.
00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:41.439
So I set a more challenging goal and I stated it publicly before the marathon so that everybody knew I wasn't moving the goalpost or claiming that I hit my goal when I really didn't hit my goal.
00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:52.000
So, with that harder goal in mind, I decided that I needed a training plan that was gonna kind of attack whatever my weaknesses were.
00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:56.719
So I really wanted to think about my weak lengths and just go after those.
00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:01.200
Whatever the weak link was, I wanted to find it and make it stronger.
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.079
At first, that meant a lot of zone two training.
00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:14.560
I really felt like I needed to build my aerobic base, and I did that for a good while, and I got my base up and my weekly mileage kept coming up till it got up to about 30 miles a week.
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:20.560
But at that point, I started to feel like the weakest link in the chain wasn't my aerobic fitness anymore.
00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.120
It was my structural strength.
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:30.159
My left knee was bothering me at that mileage, and my Achilles on my right ankle was starting to get pretty sore.
00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:35.439
So I shifted into uh strength training to go after that newer weakness.
00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:40.080
After about a month of that, I had a little detour on the way to the marathon.
00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:45.039
I wanted to run a 20-mile trail race with my friend called the Jigger Johnson.
00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:55.520
So I did some hilly mountain training so that I could get myself ready, and I ran just about 21 miles with 6,000 feet of elevation gained during that race.
00:02:55.759 --> 00:03:00.080
After that, the only thing left in my sights was this marathon goal.
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.680
So I buckled down and I really focused on the build.
00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:14.159
I brought my long runs from 12 miles up to about 18, and I worked in more threshold running, which is basically comfortably hard intervals.
00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:20.240
Right at the edge of where you can still hold your pace, a few minutes on, and then a short recovery, and then repeat.
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:26.719
That was the stuff that I had kind of neglected earlier in the year when I was focusing on that base and strength training.
00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:31.280
So after that marathon block was over, it was time for the taper.
00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:40.000
That's uh usually a couple weeks before the race where you cut back your mileage quite a bit and let your legs recover so that you can start the race fresh.
00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:46.400
The idea is to have a nice, calm couple weeks of recovery.
00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:49.520
Unfortunately, that's not really how life works.
00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.280
At least not for me, anyways.
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Uh, work was very hectic and life was even crazier.
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And the week leading up to the marathon, my sleep was just terrible.
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The best sleep I got all week was about a 70 sleep score.
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Now they say that you don't really need to worry about sleep the night before a marathon because it's actually two nights before that matters the most.
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Um, so nobody really sleeps well the night before.
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So as long as you get a decent night's sleep two nights out, your body can kind of run off of that.
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Unfortunately for me, I didn't get a very good night's sleep either night.
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So I guess I was just screwed going into my marathon.
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I also thought I was going to avoid maranoium, which is where you start getting paranoid about every little ache and pain during the taper.
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I figured that I could just tell myself everything was fine and that wouldn't happen to me.
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Um, but apparently I was wrong.
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I got paranoid through the whole taper.
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Every time I stepped weird and my ankle felt a little funny, or I felt a little knee pain going to bed or getting up in the morning, I was convinced that everything was falling apart and my marathon was going to be ruined.
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Now, the night before the race, all I wanted was to get the girls to bed on time, get everything packed, and then relax for a little bit before turning in.
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But that is not at all how it went.
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We got home uh quite a bit later than I expected to.
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My daughter was helping me clean the car and she was being a great little helper, even though she was tired and a little fussy.
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But uh she tripped and fell in the garage while she was carrying a glass coffee cup and she cut her hand open.
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So we had to stop everything that we were doing and deal with that.
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For a minute or so, I thought we were gonna have to go get her stitches because it was bleeding pretty bad.
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Uh, she bled all over my shirt.
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But once we washed it off and I realized it wasn't that serious, um, and we got it taken care of at home.
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By then the girls went to bed an hour later than planned, which meant I had to stay up way later, mixing tailwind for my hydro flasks and loading all of my gear into the car.
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And I knew I'd be tired and foggy in the morning, so I wanted it all done the night before.
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So in the morning I could just get in and drive without thinking about anything.
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You know, sometimes you hear horror stories about people showing up to their marathon and then they realize that they forgot their running shoes or something like that.
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And I really did not want to be that guy.
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So, anyways, after all the chaos and uh 49 sleep score the night before, it was finally race day morning.
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I got up at 4 15 uh because we wanted to leave early.
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The lady at the bib pickup told us that traffic was going to be a nightmare.
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And so we got the girls loaded up and we were on the road by 5 a.m., which was right on our goal.
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I was pretty tired, but more than that, I had to eat breakfast, even though I really didn't want to.
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I for some reason I never want to eat the night before a race or the morning of a race.
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Um, and my wife had run out of her homemade sourdough bread that I was used to, so I was stuck trying to choke down some store-bought stuff that was not nearly as good as my wife's, but I was able to get it down.
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A little tough, but I was able to get it down.
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Uh, turns out we were a little bit over ambitious on the timing and the traffic because traffic wasn't really a problem at all, actually.
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Parking was a snap, we got right in, and uh then the race gods gave me a very good omen.
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I got to be the very first person to use a portage on that morning.
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I walked in and it was pristine and clean, which has never once happened to me on race day morning.
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So I took it as a sign that things were gonna be okay, even though everything was hectic leading up to it.
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So then after that, it was kind of the usual milling around, waiting for the start.
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And then I found the 435 pacer and I figured I'd line up just in front of him.
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I don't really know the guy well, but I did recognize him.
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I've seen him around a few races.
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So I told him, hey, if you see me out there, I'm going for 430.
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So if you see me, just give me a push in the back and you know, keep me ahead of you.
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He gave me a little chuckle and he said he'd do that, and everything was gonna be fine.
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So then I just had to sit there and wait for the gun.
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Though honestly, at this point I wasn't really nervous anymore.
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It was more just excitement more than anything else.
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I was so excited to finally start my first marathon.
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And then after a year of waiting, the gun went off.
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So then after the gun went off, well, nobody really moved.
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The whole pack just kind of shuffled slowly toward the start line.
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By the time I actually crossed the start line, the clock already said about four minutes.
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But I started my watch right when I crossed the start line.
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So my watch and the race clock were about four minutes apart.
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Hold on to that because it actually does matter later on in the story.
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And speaking of my watch, one of the things that I learned in training is that none of the Garmin preset screens had everything that I wanted to see on a long run.
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So I built my own custom screen with all of the data that actually mattered to me.
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What I had on there was my total elapsed time, my average pace for the whole run, my average pace for the mile I was on, my current pace, and my heart rate.
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Having all of that data in one place made a huge difference in how well I was able to pace my long runs in training, and it turned out to be just as valuable on race day.
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So I would highly recommend that you get that dialed in before your first marathon.
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Now, everybody tells you not to get dragged out too fast at the start.
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You've got adrenaline, you're excited, it's easy to fly out there.
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And I figured that that wouldn't be me.
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I'd been really nailing my 1018 pace all through training.
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And then I looked down at my watch and I was running about 945.
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So it turns out it actually really is that easy to go out way faster than you want to.
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So for the next mile or two, I was just I was glued to my watch.
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I was, I was just staring at constantly, trying to be really careful to rein the pace back in.
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Now, to be fair, I was deliberately going a little bit faster than goal pace.
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Um, I wanted to be somewhere around 10.05 to 1010 because I knew that there were some pretty big hills late in the race that were going to eat a lot of time.
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And I didn't want to be climbing them at goal pace.
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So the plan was to bank a little bit of cushion early and then use it up on those hills.
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So I was settling into a nice rhythm right around 1008 a mile when about a mile and a half in, I saw my wife and my little girls near a playground that we had kind of planned to meet at.
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I ran over, high-fived them, told them I loved them, and they were cheering with their little cowboy bells, and it was like the cutest little thing I've ever seen.
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And that gave me a real boost.
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Um, really, really got me energized.
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And then I looked down and I was running 930 again.
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So apparently, my wife and my kids can really speed me up in the middle of a race.
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Um, so then the next five or six miles were just really about holding my pace and managing it the way that I'd planned.
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I was taking any downhill to build a little bit of cushion for those hills at the end, and I was doing a good job of it, holding my average right around 1008.
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But remember that pacer that I had joked around with at the start of the race, the one um who was running 435.
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Well, around mile five, I look back and he was right behind me.
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I was like, dang, dude, you're going too fast.
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You're killing me.
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And he goes, No, no, no, you're fine.
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Don't worry about it.
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So then I'm like, okay, whatever, keep running.
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And then I see him again at mile eight.
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And I say, Are you sure you're not running too fast?
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And he goes, No, I've got it, man.
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I'm actually behind schedule a little bit.
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So then I look at my watch and I'm like, I'm averaging about 1007.
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And I look at him like, what are you talking about?
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I honestly thought that maybe my watch was broken at this point.
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Then he looks at me and he goes, I'm running about a 1007.
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What are you running?
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I say, Yeah, I'm about 10.07.
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And he goes, Yeah, but I have to run to gun time, not chip time.
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And I was like, wait, what do you mean?
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I think I had a little weird look on my face.
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I'd never heard anybody say that on any podcasts or anything that I'd listened to about pacers.
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So he explains that he has to cross the finish line at 4:35 on the race clock, no matter what his chip time is.
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So since he crossed the starting line at about four minutes after the gun, just about the same as me, he's got four minutes to make up that to get to the time that he has to hit.
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So this whole first eight miles, I had been paranoid about staying five minutes ahead, or thinking I had to finish five minutes ahead of the 435 pacer.
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When really, because I crossed four minutes late, just like he had, I only had to stay about a minute ahead of him at the finish line.
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So that was a good lesson learned.
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Um, another thing I had done before the race on Friday, my wife and I drove the whole course in her car so that I could get a feel for the terrain and just know where I was going.
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And that's when I realized that it was a lot hillier than I thought.
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There was a steep quarter to half mile-ish climb right around mile 17, and then another stretch somewhere between 19 and 20, that wasn't really steep, but it was just kind of steadily climbing for basically the whole mile.
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And that drive is actually what gave me my pacing strategy, which was go a little bit faster early to bank time for those hills at the end.
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And here's exactly how I did it.
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On the downhills in the first half of the race, I would just let myself run basically as fast as I could.
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I'd just let the hill carry me down as long as my heart rate stayed under 150.
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And then on the uphills, I'd climb until either my heart rate hit 160 or I slowed to my 1018 goal pace, whichever one came first.
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That way I was never really redlining during a climb and spiking my heart rate.
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And it worked pretty well, actually.
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By the halfway point, I was averaging about 1006 a mile.
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So I had plenty of cushion for the hills coming up, but then something hit me around halfway that I really didn't expect.
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You know, everybody warns you about how brutal it gets at mile 22 or mile 23, but nobody warned me about boredom.
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Right around mile 13, 14, right in that, you know, half race distance area, I was ahead of pace.
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I was feeling good, nothing was really hurting me at this point.
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My heart rate was holding steady, and I just got plain bored.
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The crowd had thinned out quite a bit.
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Um, I'd been running over two hours, and I knew that I had more than two hours to go, and I really just started drifting mentally.
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And that's the part that actually messed me up pretty bad.
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I stopped paying attention to my watch and my mind would just kind of wander, I'd be daydreaming or thinking about random stuff, and then I'd check and I'd be going too slow.
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So I'd speed up.
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Can I get back up to pace, run a bit faster?
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And then I'd look down and I'd be going too fast.
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And that yo-yo went on for quite a few miles.
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It wasn't until right about mile 17 that I finally snapped out of it.
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And I'll tell you a little bit about what pulled me out of it.
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But I never thought boredom could be the thing that was going to wreck my race.
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And it turns out it's something that you have to work on just like everything else in your marathon plan and in your training.
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So, what pulled me out of that boredom at mile 17?
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First, my family was right at the bottom of the big hill that I was telling you about.
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I got to see them again.
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Um, my daughters were blowing bubbles at me as I ran by and then gave me another boost, kind of just like I had at the start of the race.
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And then there was the hill itself.
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It wasn't monotonous anymore.
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I was working fairly hard, and I really had to fight to get up that hill.
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I deliberately let my pace slow down quite a bit to about 12 minutes a mile so that I could keep my heart rate from going too crazy.
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And I spent some of that cushion that I'd banked earlier.
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I watched my average drift from about 1008 to about 1012 per mile.
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I also started losing that 435 pacer.
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He just kept his nice steady pace uh all the way up, and by the top of the hill, I'd guess I was probably about 200 yards behind him.
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Once I crested that hill, the fatigue was finally starting to set in.
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I was getting to about as far as I'd ever run on the road, which was 18 miles, and my feet were starting to hurt, my legs were getting tired, and I was getting very, very sick of taking gels every 30 minutes.
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Um, but here's the thing, that might all sound like a negative and a hard thing or a bad thing, but it actually helped me.
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It kind of broke me out of that boredom and it gave me something to push through and something to think about, something to focus on, besides the metronome of my feet just slapping the pavement over and over and over and over again.
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And that's really what kind of got my head back in the game.
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My pace was a different story.
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I'd still been doing the yo-yo um right up to about mile 18 and having a hard time getting back into a steady goal pace when uh right about then a couple ran past me, and they were running what looked like it should be an easy pace for me, but they were going faster than I was.
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So I decided I should latch onto them and see what they were running, which was right about 1015 a mile.
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I tucked in behind them for a couple miles, and they kind of pulled me back into my rhythm, and I finally got out of that yo-yo pace that I'd been stuck in for so long and was just able to kind of cruise at that 1015 to 1018 pace.
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Once I got back into my rhythm, I actually lost my pacers.
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Uh, the woman had to stop to tie her shoe and I never saw her again.
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And then the guy ducked into a porta potty at one of the aid stations, and I didn't see him for a while.
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But that was okay because I was kind of back into my rhythm and focused on the race again, wasn't bored, wasn't mentally drifting anymore.
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So that was good because this was the part of the race that I was definitely the most nervous about.
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I had done 18 miles on the road, I'd done the 21 mile trail run, which is yes, 21 miles, but it's totally different than running on the road.
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So this last 10K, basically every step of it was further than I'd ever run on the road before, um, and more than I'd ever run on trail or road at all.
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And at mile 20, I started to notice my left knee.
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It hadn't really been a problem through this whole training block, not since the Jigger Johnson race.
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And I was really hoping that it would just make it to the finish without any problems or pain.
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But mile 20 told me otherwise.
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By mile 22, it was noticeably worse, and both my calves were getting extremely tight.
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And I was starting to get kind of nervous at this point.
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So I tried walking for a minute, and it was the most awkward feeling I've ever had.
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I don't know if you've ever been on a boat all day, but you get off and the ground just feels like it's moving, and your legs are made of cooked spaghetti.
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It was kind of like that, but with a whole bunch of paint on top of it.
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And uh, I remember some lady gave me a weird look because I said out loud, that's not better, that's not better, I'm gonna run again.
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So I ran and the knee was still hurting, but walking was just way worse, and I didn't want to do that again.
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Then near the end of mile 23, my knee was hurting so bad that I knew I had to do something I really didn't want to do.
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I was gonna have to stop.
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So I pulled over to the sidewalk.
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I stretched my calves, stretched my quads, my hamstrings, I kicked my legs a little bit to just try to loosen them up and and try to get going again.
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And getting going was way harder than I expected it was gonna be.
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Um, I was telling my legs to run and they just didn't want to listen.
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So it took a definite, like focused, real effort to get back to running.
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And it wasn't fast by any means.
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Then right around mile 24, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the whole race.
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During training, I'd been switching sides of the road every mile.
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Ever since the knee and the Achilles pain had showed up earlier in the year, when the road slopes down towards the edge.
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:21.279
So if you are always running on the same side, one foot is always landing just like a little bit higher than the other one.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:23.599
So switching sides evens that out.
00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:39.200
But this course had kept me on the right side of the road the entire race, and the road was sloping away to my right, which meant my left knee and foot, bad knee, had been landing high on every single step for 24 miles.
00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:43.759
And I noticed the sidewalk next to me was actually sloped a little bit the other way.
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So I jumped on it, and not that everything suddenly felt great or anything, but it did feel a lot better, and my knee definitely noticed.
00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:59.519
So I got back close to my pace, um, right around 1020 and a little bit of 1030 a mile.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:09.599
After the stretching and walking, my average for the race had crept up to about 1017 per mile, which was basically right on goal paste.
00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:16.960
And for a little while on that sidewalk, I thought 430 might still be alive, might still be able to get it.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:25.839
But then the sidewalk ended, and right after it came a downhill, and that downhill killed my knee.
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It was excruciatingly painful, and I had to walk.
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There was just no way around it.
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:35.839
And I watched my average pace climb to 1020 a mile.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:39.359
So that means four hours, 30 minutes was gone.
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Then it climbed up to 1030.
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So 435 was gone.
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Then 1040 a mile.
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And I was just disgusted.
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That's when I knew the goal wasn't happening that day.
00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.880
And that's when the tears came.
00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:59.119
I hate crying.
00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:04.960
And honestly, I don't know if it was the pain from the knee or the goal slipping away.
00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:07.200
It was probably some of both.
00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:12.000
But um when I realized that, the first thing I thought to do was call my wife.
00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:17.920
And I told her that my stupid knee was acting up again and I wasn't going to make my time.
00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:19.920
Of course, she was super supportive.
00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:21.440
She said, don't worry about it.
00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:22.400
Just finish the race.
00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:23.599
It's your first marathon.
00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:25.519
It's okay if you don't hit your goal.
00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:29.599
And she was right, but I was still just totally gutted.
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:39.599
Um, watching a goal that I'd worked so hard for and um trained for just slip away right in front of me was was very upsetting.
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:48.160
And even though I'd watched my goal slip away and I was in a lot of pain, I will say the thought of quitting never once crossed my mind.
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:56.319
After that phone call, I just kept going and pushed as much as I could, which honestly wasn't much for those last couple of miles.
00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:58.400
It was walk, jog, walk, jog.
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:00.400
I'd walk until the pain eased off.
00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:02.960
And then I'd convince myself that I could run again.
00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:07.039
I'd jog for a little bit until it hurt too bad, and then I'd have to walk again.
00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.960
Um, then I hit the one mile to go mark.
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:20.640
And something about that mile to go gave me a little bit of a boost of energy and a little bit of hope, um, and a little bit of not really caring what my knee felt like anymore.
00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:27.839
So I walked a bit of that mile, and then for the last three quarters of a mile or so, I jogged it all.
00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.119
And it wasn't fast.
00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:34.559
I'm not sure because I walked so much, but it was probably like a 13 or 14 mile pace.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:42.720
And then I saw my wife and kids right at the finish line, got one last little boost from them, and then I put in my usual finish line kick.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:46.480
I always try to cross the finish line as fast as I possibly can.
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:55.440
And according to my Garmin, the fastest pace I hit in the entire race was crossing that finish line, which was right about 817 a mile.
00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:03.839
As soon as I crossed, I put my hands on my knees, bent over, and just couldn't believe that it was done.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:09.680
Uh my official time was four hours, 46 minutes, and 32 seconds.
00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:22.160
The uh the 435 pacer that I'd been kind of joking with the whole race was leaning on the railing of the little corral thing that was uh hurting everybody into a little baseball field.
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:27.680
I went over, gave him a fist bump, and thanked him for all the all the encouragement out there.
00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:34.559
He told me I did a great job, and we we gave each other a little like kind of one-arm side hug and congratulated each other.
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:40.640
And then I got my medal, my beautiful medal, and uh which is right here.
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:52.079
Ta-da! And even though I was still really gutted about the time, um, getting that medal still felt pretty good.
00:25:52.240 --> 00:26:02.240
Um on the way into the baseball field, I remembered one of the books that I read saying that you should take the emergency blanket they give you, even if you don't feel like you need it.
00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:07.039
And I didn't really think I needed it, but I turned around anyway and grabbed one.
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:19.440
And then they had some tables lined up with little cups of water on them, and I was just so sick of tailwind and gels that all I wanted was plain, clean, unflavored water.
00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:23.759
I chugged like three classes of water on my way down that little row of tables.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.240
Then I looked around for my wife and kids for a little bit, but they hadn't quite made it into the baseball field yet.
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:35.119
So I was just pretty tired and my legs were hurting so bad.
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:42.960
So I just kind of wrapped that little emergency blanket around me and I laid down in the grass and the infield and I closed my eyes.
00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.559
Um when my family finally found me, they came up to me.
00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:47.680
I didn't even open my eyes.
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:50.559
I just said, I love you guys, and kept lying there.
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:55.519
Then um, my amazing wife offered to stretch and massage my legs a little bit.
00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:03.680
She asked me where it was hurting, and she worked on my calves a little bit, and then she put her hand on my left knee and she was like, Oh, is this where it hurts?
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:06.400
I said, Yeah, right on the on the outside of my knee there.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:11.680
And she was like, Well, you're warm everywhere, but it's actually hot to the touch right here.
00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:15.519
So apparently there was actually some real inflammation going on.
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:16.880
It wasn't all in my head.
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.519
So that kind of made me feel a little bit better.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.680
So what happened that cost me my goal?
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:30.480
When I look back at the data, through 20 miles, I was actually comfortably ahead of my scheduled pace.
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:36.799
My average pace had me on track for about a four-hour, 27-minute finish at that point.
00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:46.880
I started losing some of that as soon as that knee pain showed up, but at mile 23, I was still well on pace to that 430 mark before I stopped.
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:55.279
So nearly all of those 16 minutes came in the last three miles, and they came from the knee, not my aerobic capacity.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:06.319
My aerobic engine and my fueling strategy both seemed like they were plenty strong enough to get the job done that day, but um, but structurally, the knee just wasn't gonna hold up.
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.119
Remember how I said I had spent the whole year attacking my weak link?
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:14.559
I knew my weak link had become my left knee.
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:20.880
And I did a lot of strength training and a lot of knee strengthening specifically to go after it.
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:24.640
But on race day, the weakest link was still my knee.
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:28.400
So was 430 actually in me that day?
00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:36.240
Um, my aerobic fitness and my fueling strategy say yes, it was, but a marathon includes your whole body.
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:39.119
And my knee is obviously part of my body.
00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:42.160
So apparently it just wasn't in me that day.
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:54.720
The question that I really can't answer, and honestly, it's been eating me up ever since the race, is whether banking time on the downhills early in the race cost me my knee late in the race.
00:28:54.880 --> 00:29:00.880
It protected me aerobically, and it meant that I didn't have to push too hard on the uphills, which was nice.
00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:13.839
But running that fast downhill with all that jarring impact over and over again might have beaten up my knee a lot more early on than I realized, and then I paid for it at the end of the race.
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:17.599
And I didn't even really run the plan that I intended.
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:23.279
My plan was to be around 1012 a mile at the halfway point, not 1006.
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:35.440
Um, that little rush at the beginning and the pacer confusion pushed me to run a lot faster than I wanted to because you know he was trying to catch up to the gun time and I didn't realize it.
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:42.079
And maybe an in-between strategy that I had actually planned would have been okay.
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:43.119
I don't really know.
00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:52.319
I also don't know if I'd had the aerobic capacity to push up those hills late in the race without any cushion, or if my knee would have failed anyway.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:56.960
So that's really just something that I have to live with not knowing for right now.
00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:05.519
Um, the other question that I have to sit with is did capping my long runs at 18 miles keep me from finding the weak link?
00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:08.079
I don't really think that's the case.
00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:13.680
Um, even if I'd pushed out to 20 miles, it wouldn't have shown me the failure that showed up at mile 23.
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:25.759
It might have hurt a little, um, but it wouldn't have told me anything definitive without going to like 24 or 25 miles, which nobody really does in training, and I never even considered doing that.
00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:36.079
So I don't really think it was the wrong choice, but I can't answer it definitively either way, because I only got to run this experiment one way.
00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:37.759
It's just kind of the nature of it.
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:43.440
Um, but even with all of those questions, I can still be proud that I just ran a marathon.
00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:47.680
Less than 1% of people ever do that, and I'm one of them.
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:56.720
And with my work schedule, with the kids, running a small business, I don't think I could have realistically put in much better training than I did.
00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:02.480
But being proud of running a marathon doesn't make the frustration go away.
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.000
I'm still so mad that I didn't hit my goal time.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:15.839
I feel like I did uh enough of the aerobic and fitness work to get there, and my stupid knee just wouldn't let it happen, which again is part of me.
00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:22.960
It's not like my knee is like a separate person that's trying to sabotage me, but it's just frustrating.
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:33.680
And even though the knee didn't get me to 26.2 miles the way I wanted it to, when I look back at the year, it's come a long way.
00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:39.440
Two weeks before the half marathon in March, I did a 10-mile long run.
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:41.759
That was like my peak run before the half marathon.
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:47.440
And my knee hurt so bad that I honestly at that point didn't think I'd ever run a marathon.
00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:50.480
I wasn't even sure if I was gonna make it through the half marathon.
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:57.759
But I did get through the half and built mileage all year, and then Jigger Johnson happened.
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:02.400
By far the longest thing I'd ever done at that point with tons of descending.
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:06.640
And my knee was in a lot of pain at the end of that one, too.
00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:10.640
I was worried again whether I was gonna be able to do the marathon or not.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:16.160
But I kept training, and after some rest and recovery, my knee actually got a lot better.
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:19.519
And then it carried me 23 miles at goal pace.
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.440
So when I look at that trajectory, it's actually pretty encouraging.
00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:27.440
The knee is probably the thing I've improved the most all year.
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:37.519
And if I can keep that trajectory going, then you know, hopefully by this time next year, I should be able to run this race without the knee being a major issue.
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:44.319
I should be able to push myself a little harder and keep working toward bigger and bigger goals, like I kind of have been doing all this year.
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:49.359
So yeah, it is frustrating but also encouraging.
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:55.599
But uh, anyways, I've talked a lot about what went right, what went wrong in my race.
00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:02.559
And hopefully you got some some good information out there that you can apply to your own training and hopefully your own first marathon.
00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:09.440
But there's one more thing that I'd like to touch on before we wrap up, and that is your spouse.
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:17.119
If you are married and training for a marathon, you're definitely putting in a lot of time, and that's time away from your family.
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:20.880
It's a huge drain on your spouse, not just you.
00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:27.200
So before you start a training program, I would highly encourage you to sit down and talk with them about it.
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:34.640
If you've got an awesome spouse like I do, they'll be really encouraging and do everything they can to help you hit your goals.
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:38.720
But being supportive doesn't necessarily make it easy on them.
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:47.279
It can be really hard when it feels like the only thing you care about is just training for this stupid marathon that they probably don't care about.
00:33:47.599 --> 00:34:00.400
So talk to them, make sure they know that you understand what they're giving up, and make sure that you're giving them props for supporting you and making sure you that they know you understand.
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.279
Um, I could have never done this without my wife helping me the whole way through.
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:08.559
Honestly, I couldn't really do life without her.
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:16.400
So I try to give her as much praise as I can, and even that is nowhere near what she deserves.
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:23.039
So, yeah, anyways, that's uh one last lesson for you, and that's really all I've got on this marathon.
00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:28.480
Um, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going from here, but I've got a couple of big ideas for next year.
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:34.159
So be sure to follow along and we'll see if I can hit the next goal that I set.
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:43.519
If you like this episode or if you learned anything from it, could you do me a huge favor and subscribe or follow on whatever platform you're listening or watching on?
00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:48.480
And if you've got a minute, leave in a review or a comment really helps a ton too.
00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:51.360
So I'm gonna just keep running.
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.400
And until next time, you just keep running too.
